The First International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas

Note from the Steering Committee
<strong>The</strong> following collection of reports on the various components of the conference
program constitutes the Proceedings. As will be readily apparent to readers, the reporting
was uneven in terms of format, degree of detail, and length. Some of the reports
submitted to the conveners included summaries or abstracts of presentations; others did
not. Some had conclusions and recommendations that had been adopted by participants
before the panel or the workshop adjourned; others had little more than a statement of
the objectives and questions addressed. This variability reflects the diverse spirit of the
conference, where networking (i.e., communication among delegates) was itself much of
the purpose, i.e., a specific written product was not always intended as an outcome of a
given event in the program. <strong>The</strong> variability also reflects how the conference was
organized. <strong>The</strong> steering committee – itself a diverse group of individuals with differing
backgrounds, perspectives, and expectations – did not set out with the goal of
establishing standard guidelines for reporting. Rather, the goal was to enlist a wide range
of experienced practitioners to address relevant topics, give them considerable latitude in
organizing and conducting the symposiums (talks and panels), workshops, and training
sessions, and trust that they and the other participants would make good use of the
allotted time. No reports were requested from the training sessions, so these Proceedings
consist of reports on the symposiums and workshops. <strong>The</strong> overall conclusions and
recommendations, prepared by the conveners, are presented as part of the Executive
Summary.
Note that a number of presentations, posters, daily reports, and other materials from the
conference will remain available for viewing and download from the permanent
conference website, www.iccmpa.org. This site will also report on developments
regarding the second <strong>International</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Marine Mammal Protected Areas,
tentatively set for 2011 or 2012.
<strong>The</strong> steering committee would particularly like to thank Randall R. Reeves for his help in
editing these proceedings.
ICMMPA <strong>Conference</strong> Proceedings
Members of the conference steering committee.
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